Anti-Gay Teacher Jerry Buell Teams Up With NOM: VIDEO

Jerry Buell, the Florida teacher who was suspended this summer for posting homophobic messages on his Facebook wall and compares himself to Jesus, has teamed up with the equally anti-gay National Organization for Marriage to produce a new video that paints him as a martyr for their discriminatory cause.

While Buell definitely has the right to speak out if he wants, I'm going to have to agree with Good As You's Jeremy Hooper, who writes, "It's probably not the smartest choice for him, a teacher tasked with instructing all kinds of students from all walks of life, to be stirring up animus in this way."

Comments

I hate what he said, but he's right. Free speech is exactly that.

Posted by: Erich | Sep 30, 2011 11:27:21 AM

These RW assholes always hate the ACLU until that time that they think their free speech has been abridged. The ACLU doesn't change or waiver in its postion - the right wingers are the ones that change if it's free speech they don't like. Then, when the ACLU steps in they are called all sorts of vile names. What disingenuous assholes.

Posted by: jhr459 | Sep 30, 2011 11:38:32 AM

I bet this guy has a wide stance... Always these types

Posted by: Jesus | Sep 30, 2011 11:38:52 AM

@Erich:
No, he's a teacher and some former student claimed that he said such stuff in official function in class (a captive audience). That should actually end his career and I hope some parents sue him.

Posted by: Blub | Sep 30, 2011 11:49:44 AM

So he can shoot heroin at home and it shouldn't affect his job either based on these arguments.

Posted by: Wayne | Sep 30, 2011 12:11:06 PM

This video makes me want to throw up.

Posted by: Misa | Sep 30, 2011 12:26:22 PM

bigotry is the conviction he has. Parents and fellow teachers should complain about this clown. What a hater

Posted by: Chris | Sep 30, 2011 12:38:50 PM

Like the Dakota Ary case in Texas, the anti-gay crowd doesn't want you to know the full story about Buell. The guy was putting combative "if you don't like me rambling on about my religion and politics in class, don't take my class" style statements on his course syllabus. Telling kids they have to either put up with a teacher's personal constant activism in class or else they shouldn't take a class they might well need is far, far different than simply a vague free speech issue. And that'd be true whether Buell was preaching anti-gay or pro-gay propaganda or any other activist agenda in class.

But NOM won't want you to know that part of the story, just like the anti-gay groups don't want you to know that Dakota Ary had a history of inappropriately off-topic interruptions in class and deliberately baiting his teachers.

Again and again, these anti-gay groups are deliberately setting up situations to get one of their members in trouble and then playing the martyr, as though they're being victimized for their views rather than for acting like disruptive combative jerks... exactly what Maggie Gallagher was trying to do when she went to the Prop 8 play and loudly rattled her food bags and acting obnoxious during the play, hoping someone would kick her out so she could pretend to be victimized.

Posted by: bobbyjoe | Sep 30, 2011 12:39:33 PM

There's a Buddhist saying that goes something like this: He who knows does not speak, while he who speaks does not know. Guess where Mr. Buell lies in this. Yes, on the side of ignorance and bigotry. What a sorry man he is.

Posted by: Steve | Sep 30, 2011 12:52:50 PM

@BOBBYJOE: No they don’t want to tell the whole story and the martyrdom is a means to an end. They want to separate from the rest of the US. The want their own schools, towns, history and science funded by the taxpayer. The martyrdom is useful to gain sympathy for their ultimate goal. Their own little cities on the hill. Oneidas across the land.
In Ohio there is legislation to have state funds for education to ‘follow the student,’ meaning $6,000.00 to whatever school every child in the state attends. It is charter school funding gone crazy because the religious schools will get the funding no matter what they teach. Christianists will have a field day setting up all kinds of creationist, “Christ centered” schools.
So when you see some Midwestern or Southern Christian teacher claim they cannot have free speech in the classroom, they are angry they cannot proselytize on the government’s dime. But they are trying a work around.

the most pathetically shocking part of this bigot's remarks is him retelling how upset he was watching his wife - 'his best friend' become hysterical at what this episode might do to their family. how is it that this shmuck doesnt realize that GAY AMERICANS HAVE THE SAME FEELINGS FOR THEIR PARTNERS & FAMILIES!!! wake up you jerk. this idiot makes my blood boil. how is it that his students dont make him understand how harmful and backward his 'opinions' are.

Posted by: kurt | Sep 30, 2011 1:38:38 PM

Great comments, Gus.

Posted by: jamal49 | Sep 30, 2011 1:44:01 PM

they want their full rights to deny ours.

Posted by: andnowwhat | Oct 1, 2011 12:41:13 AM

No ERICH, you're wrong. Free speech has consequences. Always.

Posted by: nikko | Oct 1, 2011 12:43:02 AM

http://www.change.org/petitions/mark-zuckerberg-remove-anti-lgbt-hate-group-nom-from-facebook
Tell Mark Zuckerberg to stop giving violence inciting NOM a free gay bashing blood money begging bully pulpit. Inciting violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender children is NOT a First Amendment right. Facebook has specific terms of use that NOM violates daily with links from its free bully pulpit to its violent inciting web page. Tell Zuckerberg that he needs to look at the gay bashed blood on his billions.

Poor Jerry...I guess his free speech supercedes everyone elses. Was he physically harmed, suffer property damage...or was he just on the receiving end of someone else's free speech?
Did anyone do anything illegal to him or his precious family? Sue them Jerry!
Otherwise deal with the free speech you dish out and stop whining.

Posted by: paul b. | Oct 1, 2011 11:39:48 AM

So Mr. Buell is the proud NEW FACE OF HATE, is he? No doubt when he retires from teaching (or is, I hope, kicked out) he can find a lucrative new career assuring fellow bigots that it's okay to hate, abuse and discriminate against gays. Boy, this is the whole Black Civil Rights Era being repeated, isn't it? All those Southern bigots spouting off in the name of religion, and using it to justify their continuing mistreatment of a minority. Instead of the Ku Klux Klan, we've got NOM, FRC, AFA and the like. Now Mr. Buell can be their poster boy. Ain't he purty?

Posted by: Abel | Oct 1, 2011 8:15:23 PM

this is what you call "flavor of the week".

Remember Carrie Prejean?

Posted by: gayalltheway | Oct 1, 2011 9:20:40 PM

Well, my Canadian ass is frankly stunned by how many Americans actually DON'T UNDERSTAND THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

This isn't about "freedom of speech". At all.

Secondly, it's interesting that NOM has attached themselves to this man and his story. NOM likes to pretend in interviews that they're not anti-gay .... they're just "pro traditional marriage"

..well..... Buell's comments are decidedly anti-gay. His comments are specifically, and explicitly, homophobic and bigoted.

Let's look at the heart of the matter on this: a public school teacher posting a hateful comment online, available for all to see. How is a student that falls into the "hated group" (sorry for lack of a better phrase, I'm a little sleep deprived) supposed to feel safe in that classroom? Public schools are supposed to be safe places for students of any race, creed, orientation, gender, etc. Teachers posting demeaning comments online for all to see greatly undermines that.

Not only that, but how would this teacher react if a gay student was bullied in his classroom? Would he do his job and protect the student? Or would he let it go because homosexuality is a "disgusting" in his eyes?